Collaborative Supply Research Articles

Collaborative and ethical consideration in the vendor selection process

Few doubt the importance of supplier collaboration and integration decisions faced by management, as both supply chain management (SCM) and inventory management are critical to operations efficiency and global competitiveness. These strategic variables include extent of coordination from suppliers, the degree of information sharing with suppliers, and the level of organisational integration. Lean production principles alone may fail to synchronise with customer demand when companies need to develop long-term supplier relationships. Underpinning these relations is an expectation of socially and ethically responsible behaviour on the part of suppliers. Using a qualitative case-study method, the present study explored the importance of supplier relationships with H.J. Heinz and American Eagle Outfitters, as both firms have worked with their partners to ensure social and ethical responsibility.

Customer orientation and innovation: A comparative study of manufacturing and service firms

This study investigates the effect of customer orientation on innovation performance in manufacturing and service firms by comparing their innovation mechanisms. Based on a sample of 1646 manufacturing firms and 686 service firms, our results indicate that customer orientation positively affects service innovativeness and product innovativeness in service firms and manufacturing firms, respectively, and that such effects are mediated by two important firm resources: supplier collaboration and technological capability. However, customer orientation has a stronger total effect on innovativeness and supplier collaboration has a stronger mediating effect on the relationship between customer orientation and innovativeness in service firms. Although many previous studies have indicated that technological capability is relatively unimportant in service firms, our analyses indicate that it is now an equally important factor in service innovation and manufacturing innovation. These findings contribute to our understanding of innovation in the service and manufacturing industries, and to the literature on customer orientation, the resource-based view of the firm, and service-dominant logic.

The Use of Virtual Environments for Knowledge Sharing in Distance Learning Education, with a View to Informing Industry

As social media and virtual world technology become increasingly commonplace, this paper considers how educators and industry can leverage the tools and systems of these mediums, to enable engagement and knowledge transfer between parties, with a view to informing industry from the lessons learnt. Virtual Worlds have become an extremely powerful phenomenon with millions of users. Businesses are only now beginning to acknowledge the benefits of using virtual worlds to enhance employee and supplier collaboration and to support new ideas and innovation through knowledge sharing across functions and organizational boundaries. Many businesses are still trying to understand the various implications of integrating internal communication systems with social media tools and private collaboration and networking platforms. The KNOWNET project (an EC funded Marie Curie IAPP) seeks to assess the value of virtual worlds and social networking for knowledge exchange across supply chains.

Fuzzy Task Assignment Model of Web Services Supplier in Collaborative Development Environment

In view of collaborative development environment web services supplier in ability, cost, time supplier relations and component relevance information under uncertainty problems. The fuzzy multi-objective task assignment model of web services are built in a collaborative development environment. Using

Intermediaries in power-laden retail supply chains: An opportunity to improve buyer–supplier relationships and collaboration

Despite the benefits of buyer and seller collaboration and hence relationships extolled in extensive studies, issues of relationship power inhibit implementation of collaborative and relational approaches, particularly in some parts of the retail sector. Further, most research regards buyer–supplier collaboration and relations as dyadic or focal relationships, or perhaps in a network context, and typically investigates buyer–supplier collaboration and relations from a power-dependency perspective; and within vertical supply integration. Little attention has been given to the potential role of supply chain intermediaries, such as logistics service providers, in objectively and independently determining and managing the course of buyer–supplier collaboration and relations in a business-to-business context. This article appraises the potential role of buyer–supplier collaboration and relations and their relevant opportunities in the power-laden, contentious environment of the retail grocery sector. With an interdisciplinary approach, drawn from supply management, relationship management, and logistics and supply chain management, this article emphasises the importance of horizontal collaboration using fourth-party logistics structures as horizontal intermediary conduits, who act independently between retailers and suppliers to facilitate collaborative and relational activity.

Governance of supplier collaboration in technologically uncertain NPD projects

Firms that are searching for new technologies from suppliers through collaborative new product development (NPD) need to devise effective approaches for governing the supplier relationship. Based on in-depth case studies of four collaborative NPD projects, this paper shows that in projects with a high degree of uncertainty (1) firms achieve governance by simultaneously limiting supplier involvement and allowing for high levels of collaboration, (2) transactional and relational governance have distinct roles in achieving limited supplier involvement and establishing high levels of collaboration, and (3) transactional and relational governance are organizationally separated. These findings have implications for the complementary use of relational and transactional governance, as well as for the role of purchasing and R&D in technologically uncertain NPD projects.

Dynamics of service definitions—An explorative case study of the purchasing process of professional ICT-services

Recent studies on buying services have shown that service specifications and agreements present an on-going process in which service definitions evolve through buyer-service provider interactions. In the case of professional ICT services this interaction process is far from clear. Many organizations have been confronted with failing ICT projects, financial losses, and less-useable software and services. We investigated the procurement of professional ICT services in which stabilization and destabilization of specifications contributed to a successful sourcing process. We find that service definitions change during the purchasing process, induced by dissatisfaction about the current supplier, by new information from suppliers (market consultation), and by the need to clarify specifications for potential suppliers. Changing service definitions can be seen as ‘business as usual’ with collaborative suppliers. The results of this study indicate that relational governance plays a critical role in the purchasing process, supplemented by contractual governance. Contracts explicitly allow for adaptations of specifications within the agreed framework, stimulating and facilitating innovations and improvements by suppliers. This study challenges overoptimistic confidence in contracting, particularly performance-based, since specifications (including outcomes) cannot be agreed upon up-front in the case of professional ICT services.

Effect of Supplier Relationship Management on the Effectiveness of Supply Chain Management in the Kenya Public Sector

The main objective of the study was to assess factors affecting the effectiveness of supply chain management practices in Kenyan public sector case of Ministry of Finance with the aim of assessing the effect of supplier relationship on the effectiveness of supply chain management practices. The study adopted a descriptive case research design with study population of 120 management staff working at the Ministry of finances’ procurement, finance and administration departments from which a sample size of 60 respondents was drawn. Questionnaires were used for data collection and descriptive statistics data analysis method was applied to analyze data aided by Statistical Package for Social Sciences. The study identified that lack of supplier relationship management strategies lowered the effectiveness of supply chain management functions. The study recommended application of supplier collaboration strategies.

The path of innovation: purchasing and supplier involvement into new product development

This paper aims to investigate the effects of supplier collaboration on the firm innovation performance as well as the enabling characteristics of the purchasing function. This is an original contribution as few papers empirically test the effect of supplier collaboration (meant as supplier involvement, development, and integration) on innovation performance and — simultaneously — the contribution of strategic sourcing activities and purchasing knowledge. Also, we explore the technological uncertainty of the purchase as an important contingent factor that might influence the firm's innovation strategy and the emphasis on supplier collaboration or strategic sourcing.Towards this end, we develop a theoretical framework and test it through a survey conducted on a sample of 498 companies worldwide. Results show that innovation, as a category priority, does lead to emphasize supplier collaboration and strategic sourcing which, in turn, ensure better innovation performance. Empirical evidence also shows that, on the one hand, adequate purchasing (managers) knowledge enables greater supplier collaboration and strategic sourcing; on the other hand, technological uncertainty put greater emphasis on innovation strategy as well as on strategic sourcing.

Equipment and Analytical Companies Meeting Continuous Challenges May 20–21 2014 Continuous Manufacturing Symposium

This white paper focuses on equipment, and analytical manufacturers' perspectives, regarding the challenges of continuous pharmaceutical manufacturing across five prompt questions. In addition to valued input from several vendors, commentary was provided from experienced pharmaceutical representatives, who have installed various continuous platforms. Additionally, a small medium enterprise (SME) perspective was obtained through interviews. A range of technical challenges is outlined, including: the presence of particles, equipment scalability, fouling (and cleaning), technology derisking, specific analytical challenges, and the general requirement of improved technical training. Equipment and analytical companies can make a significant contribution to help the introduction of continuous technology. A key point is that many of these challenges exist in batch processing and are not specific to continuous processing. Backward compatibility of software is not a continuous issue per se. In many cases, there is available learning from other industries. Business models and opportunities through outsourced development partners are also highlighted. Agile smaller companies and academic groups have a key role to play in developing skills, working collaboratively in partnerships, and focusing on solving relevant industry challenges. The precompetitive space differs for vendor companies compared with large pharmaceuticals. Currently, there is no strong consensus around a dominant continuous design, partly because of business dynamics and commercial interests. A more structured common approach to process design and hardware and software standardization would be beneficial, with initial practical steps in modeling. Conclusions include a digestible systems approach, accessible and published business cases, and increased user, academic, and supplier collaboration. This mirrors US FDA direction. The concept of silos in pharmaceutical companies is a common theme throughout the white papers. In the equipment domain, this is equally prevalent among a broad range of companies, mainly focusing on discrete areas. As an example, the flow chemistry and secondary drug product communities are almost entirely disconnected. Control and Process Analytical Technologies (PAT) companies are active in both domains. The equipment actors are a very diverse group with a few major Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) players and a variety of SME, project providers, integrators, upstream downstream providers, and specialist PAT. In some cases, partnerships or alliances are formed to increase critical mass. This white paper has focused on small molecules; equipment associated with biopharmaceuticals is covered in a separate white paper. More specifics on equipment detail are provided in final dosage form and drug substance white papers. The equipment and analytical development from laboratory to pilot to production is important, with a variety of sensors and complexity reducing with scale. The importance of robust processing rather than overcomplex control strategy mitigation is important. A search of nonacademic literature highlights, with a few notable exceptions, a relative paucity of material. Much focuses on the economics and benefits of continuous, rather than specifics of equipment issues. The disruptive nature of continuous manufacturing represents either an opportunity or a threat for many companies, so the incentive to change equipment varies. Also, for many companies, the pharmaceutical sector is not actually the dominant sector in terms of sales.

Supplier collaboration and speed-to-market of new products: the mediating and moderating effects

In a turbulent market economy, the role of suppliers in manufacturer's new product development has received great attention from both practitioners and researchers. Substantial empirical evidence on the contribution of suppliers in addressing challenges in terms of shorter product life, more immediate response, and faster information flows has been presented. This study aims to investigate which of the supplier collaboration (SC) practices are directly or indirectly related to the speed-to-market (STM) of new products across different firm sizes. The results confirm the direct and positive effect of information sharing on STM. Furthermore, information sharing may partially mediate the effect of strategic purchasing on STM, and completely mediate the effect of supplier involvement on STM. It is also shown that firm size significantly affects the relationship between strategic purchasing and information sharing and that between information sharing and STM. The implications on improving STM via SC for future research and managerial practices are also discussed.

MMOG/LE: Improving supply chain delivery performance through buyer- supplier collaboration

This article introduces readers to a relatively new self-assessment tool for measuring the readiness and effectiveness of supplier materials management and logistics processes in the automotive industry. The tool, the Material Management Operating Guidelines/Logistics Evaluation (MMOG/ LE), was developed by the Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG), and Odette International – a European alliance of automotive companies. The article begins with an introduction to the topic of quality and materials management assessment systems. The author’s then report on what they learned about MMOG/LE based on a review of the system and other comparable systems, and based on interviews with OEM’s and tier 1 and 2 auto suppliers that use the system. The article begins with a description of what the MMOG/LE system is, and how it works. The article then has a section comparing MMOG/LE and ISO/TS16949, and then another section comparing MMOG/LE and the SCOR model. The authors then address and comment on various strengths and weaknesses of the MMOG/LE model. Finally, the authors make several recommendations on how the system and processes for managing it could be improved. Overall, the authors find that MMOG/LE is an effective system for improving materials management and logistics performance.

Supplier Selection: Impact of Multi-Tier Supplier Visibility

1. IntroductionIn order to survive in a global business environment a firm must maintain suppliers that are dependable and support the key mission of the firm. Usually a firm maintains a form of supplier relationship management (SRM). Most supply chains are multi-tier supplier networks. For example, the first-tier supplier is the OEM's immediate supplier. The OEM's second-tier suppliers are their first-tier suppliers' immediate suppliers. According to Jolayemi et al., 2013, maintaining lower-tier supplier visibility (LTSV) in SRM encompasses the ability to - on a continuous basis - know and understand the environmental situations, the financial health, the capabilities, the operational performance, the practices, and the strategic and operational activities of all tier suppliers who are the OEM's critical business links.In order to properly implement an SRM, OEM firms must distinguish which suppliers are more important to the core and continuity of its business. In other words, firms usually categorize or stratify their first-tier suppliers (Kraljic, 1983; Monczka et al., 2009; Day et al., 2010; Li et al., 2014). Although various stratification schemes exist in the literature, the most common are strategic, custom, collaborative and commodity suppliers (Li et al., 2014). When selecting suppliers, firms use a set of evaluation criteria. The number of such supplier selection criteria that have been identified and used in the literature far exceeds 50 (Chen, 2011; Hsu et al., 2006; Kannan & Tan, 2002; Dickson 1996; Weber et al, 1991). However, the emphasis put on various criteria may differ based on whether the supplier is strategic, collaborative, and custom or commodity (Li et al., 2014).Another dimension is the practice of maintaining lower-tier supplier visibility (LTSV) whereby a firm may select its first-tier suppliers by also taking into account the performance and capabilities of their lower-tier suppliers (Jolayemi et al., 2013). For example, a firm that emphasizes quality and reliability of supply may want to investigate more these issues at the lower-tier supplier level of its strategic suppliers. Therefore, the questions that form the focus of this study are:1. Would a company that seeks lower-tier visibility (LTSV) in evaluating its first tier suppliers have significantly different expectations of some of the evaluation criteria than a firm that does not seek LTSV?2. Would the significantly different expectations in (1) above, if they exist, be maintained for a given evaluation criterion for all types of stratified supplier levels (strategic, custom, collaborative and commodity suppliers)?2. BackgroundThe three issues that converge to form the basis of this research are (1) supplier selection criteria, (2) supplier stratification and (3) seeking lower-tier visibility in a multi-tier supply chains. This section will provide a brief review of the previous work in each of the three areas. It is pertinent to state that there is a rich literature in each of (1) and (2), but much fewer in (3). Therefore, this paper will not provide any exhaustive background in (1) and (2); instead, it will provide a brief overview of some directly related work sufficient to show how the issues addressed in this paper are impacted. It is to be noted here that many elements of literature review presented in this section are common to those provided by co-authors on related research as published in Jolayemi et al. (2013), Fan et al (2013) and Li et al. (2014).2.1. Supplier Selection CriteriaThe literature on supplier selection is extensive, comprising of both empirical studies of actual practice and prescriptive studies of how suppliers should be selected. However, there is lack of clarity over what exactly constitutes effective supplier selection and the appropriate criteria to use in different situations (Hsu et al., 2006). Consequently, the number of supplier selection criteria that have been identified and used in the literature far exceeds 50. …

Exploratory Study of Combining Integrated Product and Services Offerings with Industrial Symbiosis in Order to Improve Excess Heat Utilization

This paper explores the implications of combining an Integrated Product and Services Offering (IPSO) (also known as PSS) with Industrial Symbiosis (IS) in order to facilitate the increased utilization of Excess Heat (EH). To do so, five different EH cases originating from an IS perspective have been investigated. Based on an IPSO-focused literature review, those five EH cases are analyzed to identify potential pros and cons, if an IPSO perspective is applied, in order to further improve EH utilization.The results indicate that applying the IPSO concept, in combination with IS, has the potential to facilitate and improve EH utilization. However, also of importance is having a clear and well-formulated business agreement, as well as mutual trust and a well-functioning dialogue between the parties involved in the EH supply collaboration.

Performance implications of marketing exploitation and exploration: Moderating role of supplier collaboration

While previous studies suggest that firms can achieve superior performance by being ambidextrous—engaging in exploitative and exploratory activities simultaneously—research is scarce on the performance implications of pursuing ambidexterity in firms' marketing function. This investigation considers firms' ambidexterity in marketing to consist of exploratory and exploitative marketing activities and examines the individual and joint impact of these activities on market performance. In addition, this investigation proposes and tests the conjecture that firms' collaborations with suppliers would moderate the impact of marketing exploitation and exploration on firm performance differently. The findings from surveys of key informants in 220 firms show that pursuing marketing exploitation and exploration simultaneously hurts firms' market performance. Supplier collaboration enhances the impact of marketing exploration but weakens the impact of marketing exploitation on market performance.

A knowledge sharing framework for black, grey and white box supplier configurations in new product development

Managing supplier collaboration is increasingly cited as a key success factor in new product development (NPD) performance. Knowledge sharing between customer and supplier is a critical issue to manage collaboration but one which has only been partially investigated in the inter-organisational NPD context. This means that the specific characteristics of knowledge sharing according to the three classical supplier involvement configurations (black box: design is supplier driver, grey box: joint design and white box: design is customer driven) are still largely unknown. This research proposes to fill this gap by presenting a conceptual framework for knowledge sharing according to the supplier involvement configuration. Knowledge sharing integrates knowledge transfer, translation and transformation. A qualitative methodology based on cross-case comparisons of six projects in two companies is used. This research shows that the dynamics of knowledge sharing depend on each configuration. Thus, for black box projects, knowledge translation is a prerequisite for knowledge transfer. For grey box projects, knowledge transfer and translation are initiated simultaneously in a continuous loop. For white box projects, knowledge transfer is the key activity and potentially generates knowledge translation. The results suggest that managers should pay attention to translation activities which are critical for the success of co-development projects.

Relief supply collaboration for emergency logistics responses to large-scale disasters

This paper proposes a novel relief supply collaboration approach to address the issue of post-disaster relief supply–demand imbalance in emergency logistics (EL) operations. This proposed approach involves two levels of recursive functions: (1) a two-stage relief supplier clustering mechanism for time-varying multi-source relief supplier selection and (2) the use of stochastic dynamic programming model to determine a multi-source relief supply that minimises the impact of relief supply–demand imbalance during EL response. The distinctive features of this proposed approach are to identify the potential relief suppliers and to minimise the imbalanced supply–demand impact under relief supply collaboration. Scenario design and model tests are conducted to demonstrate that relief supply collaboration with grouped relief suppliers has a significant benefit of alleviating the impact of imbalanced relief supply–demand, relative to collaboration with ungrouped ones.

Quality excellence in complex supply networks: EFQM excellence model reconsidered

Under the business pressures and megatrends shaping today's supply chains (SCs), enterprises have to compete and sustain as part of increasingly complex, highly interdependent and web-enabled supply networks. Achieving excellence in such a context has a meaning far beyond excellence within the enterprise boundaries and requires more than successfully established and maintained enterprise systems. Extant literature from both SC Management and Quality Management domains still appear to lack comprehensive and clarified definitions and requirements for quality excellence within complex supply networks. To contribute in this direction, this study aims at defining, clarifying and discussing quality excellence requirements within collaborative and complex supply networks. All the principles, discussions and requirements are structured and founded on the components of well-established European Foundation for Quality Management's (EFQM) Excellence Model. Therefore, this article answers the following research questions: ‘What are the requirements of excellence in complex supply networks?’ and ‘How EFQM components should be considered and treated in a collaborative setting?’ The contribution of this study lies in providing the requirements, definitions and extensions of EFQM components and a multi-partner representation for the extended setting. The findings suggest that a multi-partner, collaborative and network-centric understanding of each EFQM components is needed with respect to the soft and hard aspects, while a cross-partner excellence mindset is to be deployed across the network.

Buyer-Induced Supplier Collaboration Through Commitment to Low Prices and Diversified Sourcing

How can a powerful buyer in development-intensive industries utilize supplier collaboration? To answer this question, we formulate a stylized game-theoretic model of two suppliers, focal and partner, with varying technological capabilities, where the focal supplier has a greater business power than the partner supplier. We analyze supplier collaboration by studying the trade-off between cost-improvement synergies and uncertain coordination costs, where this trade-off may not only be altered by the buyer's operational decisions, but also by suppliers' characteristics. We show that the buyer prefers supplier collaboration when suppliers have similar technological capabilities and business power. To enable collaboration, the buyer may jointly engage in two strategies: commitment to low prices and diversified sourcing through egalitarian allocations. Supported by examples from the semiconductor and defense industries, commitment to procure at competitively low prices persuades the suppliers to collaborate. Egalitarian allocations --- allocations that favor the partner supplier when suppliers can collaborate, but fail to do so --- can effectively maintain the collaboration by dealing with the coordination cost uncertainty.

Developing Students’ Understanding of Co-opetition and Multilevel Inventory Management Strategies in Supply Chains: An In-Class Spreadsheet Simulation Exercise

Instructors look for ways to explain to students how supply chains can be constructed so that competing suppliers can work together to improve inventory management performance (i.e., a phenomenon known as co-opetition). An Excel spreadsheet-driven simulation is presented that models a complete multilevel supply chain system—customer, retailer, wholesaler, distributor, and manufacturer—for up to six competing products. Students are provided the opportunity to compare the inventory cost and other key performance metrics of the alternative multilevel supply chain structures. This article explains the simulation model, describes the instructional approach, and presents assessment results from students in an introductory operations management course. Students find that the simulation is easy to use and helps them understand the performance impact of strategic supplier collaborations on supply chain operating performance.